apparently happened to notre dame football player manti te'o happens every day. >> doctors, lawyers, law enforcement. i mean, people who are really smart. >> reporter: private investigator dawn ricci says she's spoken to hundreds of men and women who get conned after falling deeply in love online. what is it they're hoping for? >> everyone just wants to feel needed and loved and find that romance, the wonder, the excitement of it all. the scammer just knows how to pull them into it. >> reporter: it's called catfishing, a term popularized by the 2010 film "catfish," about a man who has an online love affair with the ideal woman, who turns out not to exist. it's a scam built on trust, one e-mail, one text, one phone call at a time over months, or in manti te'o's case, perhaps years. >> he fell in love with a fictional character. i mean, just a thought. like, a fantasy in his head. >> reporter: ricci believes that te'o is like many of her clients, the target of a cruel hoax. >> the bottom line is that there's money. they'll always ask for money. >> reporter: ricci says she's had clients sen